Aw, thanks anon. Sorry I didn’t reply to this right away; the university firewall started blocking emails from Tumblr and I didn’t realize because nobody asks me questions. (I’m not at all bitter. Honest.)

I guess you could say that I’ve been “refrigerated”, if you’re willing to let me kick down the fourth wall for a moment; I do feel like I got taken out of the scene in a pretty melodramatic way, but hopefully that doesn’t mean I won’t get to come back someday, ideally armed with a paintball gun.

askdrsheldoncooper:

According to Lewis Carrol, it was “because it can produce a few notes, though they are very flat; and it is nevar put with the wrong end in front”. However he gave this answer only after being pressured for years to give an answer. In actuality there is not, nor was there ever an answer.

I always heard that the answer was “Because Poe wrote on both”, although whether that was an official answer, I don’t know. It makes sense, though.

I tried this one in person for you, anon, but ran into a bit of a problem. I filled the ice cube trays and put them into my freezer, and realized the freezer really needed defrosting, so I decided I should do that first so it didn’t confound the results of the experiment.

Anyway, when I finished doing that, both trays were just room temperature water and the labels had fallen off, so I refilled and relabelled them. That was all right, but I’d found a frozen pizza while I was defrosting the freezer, and I thought it looked okay, but it turns out if you’re not sure about the freshness of a frozen pizza, eating it is the absolute last thing you should do.

By the time I got back from throwing up, both trays were frozen, the labels had fallen off again, and there was water dripping out of the freezer where the door seal had torn. So I guess the outcome of the experiment was “not noticeably, at least by this experimenter”.

malibueinstein:

Hey, you guys wanna go see a dead body?

I’ve only seen Stand By Me once, when I was in elementary school.  The problem was, I pretty much blacked out in horror at the part where one of the kids finds a leech in his bathing suit and I can’t for the life of me remember how it ended.  It’s okay though, because I came up with an alternative ending that I believe hews pretty close to the original:

The gang finds the body, and realizes that with a few observations and crude calculations, they can determine the approximate time of death of the boy and help solve a mystery! 

First, they check the body temperature of the deceased.  To get an accurate reading, they would need to have a rectal thermometer on them, which I think you can see sticking out of River Phoenix’s bag at one point.  They also know that body temperature decreases about 1.5 degrees celsius after death, so they can use this equation,

“37 degrees C - 2 degrees in the first hour - 1(X-1) = rectal temperature”

X equals hours passed.

Next they would check for rigor mortis, or rigidity of the body.  If the body is stiff, then it is recently deceased, as the muscles will tense up for about the first 12 hours after death, starting with the eyes and neck and ending with the muscles around the internal organs.  After this, the rigidity lessens for about three days until the body is pretty flaccid. This lack of rigidity, unfortunately, doesn’t slow down until the body starts to decompose, so a lack of rigor mortis means the body is either really recently deceased, or it has been there for some time.

After that, they check for signs of livor mortis.  This is when the blood in the body pools near whatever part of the body is touching the ground.  You would really see the full effect of it after about 5 hours.  Also, they can use this to determine if the body was moved!  For example, if the blood had congealed on the deceased’s back, but they found him lying face down, someone had clearly been there before them. It was probably one of the bullies who stole some kid’s hat.

Finally, if the body appears to have been there longer than three days or so, they would check the level of putrefication.  Here is a timeline of decomposition I just pulled from wikipedia:

• 2–3 days: Discoloration appears on the skin of the abdomen. The abdomen begins to swell, due to gas formation.
• 3–4 days: The discoloration spreads and discolored veins become visible.
• 5–6 days: The abdomen swells noticeably, and the skin blisters.
• 2 weeks: The abdomen is bloated; internal gas pressure nears maximum capacity.
• 3 weeks: Tissues have softened. Organs and cavities are bursting. The nails fall off.
• 4 weeks: Soft tissues begin to liquify and the face becomes unrecognizable.

After they completed their post-mortem examination, they called in a real forensic pathologist because they’re like, what, twelve?  And to this day, Wil Wheaton always carries a rectal thermometer on him wherever he goes.  Spooooooky! 

(I sincerely hope this is not how the movie actually ended.  Pat, if you ever decide you want to review 25-year-old movies in addition to 10-year-old ones I would love to hear how this really wrapped up.)

mystinkybutt:

Crayons with labels showing the chemicals used to make up the colors.

Makes you think twice about kids sticking these things in their mouths, doesn’t it?

It’s the proteins in the soy milk reacting with the coffee and/or the water; if your live somewhere with hard water it’s not going to help. The best suggestion I can offer is to put the milk in the cup, then the water, then add the coffee (I assume you’re making instant). Actually, the best suggestion is to just use regular milk if you can, because soy tastes like ass, but if you want to complicate things with the taste of ass, that’s your call, anon.

So, Leonard, Penny, how’s the relationship really going?

lemuralia:

oftaggrivated:

daunt:

slavin:

8bitfuture:

30,000 year old flower revived.

Scientists have resurrected a flower from plant tissues found frozen in Siberian permafrost, thought to be 30,000-32,000 years old. The new Silene stenophylla is healthy and fertile, and producing viable seeds.

The experiment has excited many because it proves that material trapped in the permafrost is recoverable and usable - scientists have been working to recover other species of plant and animal life from the same area, such as the woolly mammoth.

#whatcouldgowrong?

DUN DUN DUUUUUN

XDDDDDD

‘What could go wrong?’ XDDDDDDDDDD

SCIENCE!! :D

This is the kind of thing that makes me wish I’d gone into biology. As satisfying as I find physics, the idea of having my own dinosaur intrigues me.

I’m up to 55 followers, which is an impressive achievement considering I haven’t posted any LOLcats or the like yet (those usually bring people in by droves, don’t they?). Thank you for your interest in my life. But my askbox is still empty, and since I figure there’s only so many times I can make fun of Sheldon on here before he fills my computer with C-4 or something like that, I need you guys to ask me stuff.

On a totally unrelated note, do any of you guys watch How I Met Your Mother? I don’t, but I was flipping channels the other night and for a second I thought that someone had made a TV show out of Leonard and Sheldon’s lives. Two guys standing there scribbling away at a whiteboard… I swear, it was like looking into their apartment. But then the taller guy turned around and it was Neil Patrick Harris, who of course is much hotter than Sheldon, so I was able to breathe again.